Don’t Give Your Heart Away – Part 3
Stand firm therefore…having put on the breastplate of righteousness [Ephesians 6:14].
The Word of God is like the hand of God, as it reaches out to us with His offer of salvation. Will our heart harden to His voice and reject the offer, indignant that He should think we need His handout? Or will our heart melt at the sound of His voice and go out to Him, giving itself away to the God of love?
This is where “the breastplate of righteousness” comes in, dear friends. The breastplate of the Roman legionnaire protected his heart. In Scripture the heart is indicative of our emotions, our love, what we desire and live for. Physically the heart is a vital organ. Life cannot exist without the heart.
Spiritually the heart is a vital organ as well. Spiritual life cannot exist, is not real, except the heart be given to the Lord. Otherwise we are simply being religious. We are only playing church. We are serving self and doing good deeds for our own fame. We are tooting our own horn and singing our own praises.
Anyone in such a condition is fair game for the devil. He savors these delicacies, loving ever finger-licking bite. They are defenseless against the wiles of the devil because man by himself hasn’t the power or the intellect to outdo or outwit Satan.
Only the child of God can have the victory against the evil one, and only when he bedecks himself in “the full armor of God” and betakes himself to spiritual warfare. Part of that armor is “the breastplate of righteousness”.
The Holy Spirit teaches us that the Christian is “the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”. That, my friend, is “the breastplate of righteousness”. The natural man (i.e., the person who isn’t born again) only has his own righteousness. I am sure your experience confirms what mine does: there isn’t a man alive who is perfectly righteous, who has never done or thought or said anything wrong.
The child of God no longer has to depend on his own righteousness. Now he is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Once we get this Biblical concept into our heads and move it down into our hearts, it transforms us radically.
The evil one comes up behind us and attempts to disillusion us, “Born again? Oh, really? Didn’t I just witness you losing your temper. Looks like the same old sinner to me!”
The natural man hasn’t any defense to this accusation. He did just lose his temper. He does look like the same old sinner because he is! What can he say except, “Guilty”? Then he slinks off into the shadows to disappear, his face red as a beet.
Hopefully none of us respond in such a fashion. We will pursue this matter some more in our next study. Let us stop now and pitch our tents and take our rest for the night. We still have time to enjoy Jesus before going to sleep.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
The Word of God is like the hand of God, as it reaches out to us with His offer of salvation. Will our heart harden to His voice and reject the offer, indignant that He should think we need His handout? Or will our heart melt at the sound of His voice and go out to Him, giving itself away to the God of love?
This is where “the breastplate of righteousness” comes in, dear friends. The breastplate of the Roman legionnaire protected his heart. In Scripture the heart is indicative of our emotions, our love, what we desire and live for. Physically the heart is a vital organ. Life cannot exist without the heart.
Spiritually the heart is a vital organ as well. Spiritual life cannot exist, is not real, except the heart be given to the Lord. Otherwise we are simply being religious. We are only playing church. We are serving self and doing good deeds for our own fame. We are tooting our own horn and singing our own praises.
Anyone in such a condition is fair game for the devil. He savors these delicacies, loving ever finger-licking bite. They are defenseless against the wiles of the devil because man by himself hasn’t the power or the intellect to outdo or outwit Satan.
Only the child of God can have the victory against the evil one, and only when he bedecks himself in “the full armor of God” and betakes himself to spiritual warfare. Part of that armor is “the breastplate of righteousness”.
The Holy Spirit teaches us that the Christian is “the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”. That, my friend, is “the breastplate of righteousness”. The natural man (i.e., the person who isn’t born again) only has his own righteousness. I am sure your experience confirms what mine does: there isn’t a man alive who is perfectly righteous, who has never done or thought or said anything wrong.
The child of God no longer has to depend on his own righteousness. Now he is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Once we get this Biblical concept into our heads and move it down into our hearts, it transforms us radically.
The evil one comes up behind us and attempts to disillusion us, “Born again? Oh, really? Didn’t I just witness you losing your temper. Looks like the same old sinner to me!”
The natural man hasn’t any defense to this accusation. He did just lose his temper. He does look like the same old sinner because he is! What can he say except, “Guilty”? Then he slinks off into the shadows to disappear, his face red as a beet.
Hopefully none of us respond in such a fashion. We will pursue this matter some more in our next study. Let us stop now and pitch our tents and take our rest for the night. We still have time to enjoy Jesus before going to sleep.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Joshua: Volume 6 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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